Book Review: The Best Barbecue on Earth

The Best Barbecue on Earth By: Rick Browne

Overall, there are some good recipes and beautiful photos from 25 different countries in this book. Now let's cut to the punch and get to what urks me. I can't stand when there is a photo next to a recipe that has nothing to do with that recipe and there is no caption under the photo to even tell you what it is you're looking at. There is one recipe for Cedar-Plank Salmon and the picture shows salmon on a grill sans cedar plank. Another picture shows a marketplace with some kind of ground herb, a placard in a different language and no caption as to tell the reader the identity of that herb.
What a lucky guy who gets to go to 25 countries, take pictures, eat great food and get paid to write about it. My jealousy aside, he has come up with a somewhat professional looking cookbook. Glossy cover, perfectly shot colorful photos, insightful and interesting comments about regional cuisine all make for an upscale almost National Geographic quality navigation of the world's barbecue.
Now for a little more criticism- 25 countries, that is a lot of countries to visit, but to pay a proper homage to barbecue I believe he missed some really important epicenters producing flavorful grilled meats. It begs the question, "if something is not done right, is it worth doing at all?". What about India? Indonesia? Mongolia? West Africa? Instead of England,Ireland AND Scotland which don't bring to mind the essence of barbecue. A lot of the dishes presented in this book were not barbecue dishes per se. This is helpful if one wants to know the temperatures and cooking times for things traditionally not cooked on a grill like the German Baked Apples, Argentinian Alfajores and Irish Oatmeal Risotto. A novel idea to cook an entire meal on the grill, but this does not highlight the real soul of grilled foods. Some of my favorite recipes in this book are Moroccan Preserved Lemons. Not a grilled item, but I believe the grill sauce is just important as what you are grilling hence all the wonderful and unique grilled flavors in the world. As stated before I would have liked to see a Tandoori recipe adapted for the grill...I don't think this would be such a stretch. I'm looking forward to making the Taxi Stand Jerk Chicken with Pineapple-Mango Salsa, Barbecued Peking Duck with Hoisin Sauce and Turkish Beef Kebabs. There are also some interesting tidbits about Singapore "hawker" stands and South African braai (pronounced "bry") along with descriptions of regional spices and grilling terminolgy.

This book is a good reference point for a variety of barbecued dishes. I haven't tried any of these recipes as of yet (we'll see if they need a little tweeking). I would say that a revised edition would be necessary to be a truly comprehensive anthology of the best barbecue on earth.



If you would like to buy this book here it is on Amazon.
I checked it out from from the San Francisco Library